Craft cocktails from the best bars in Copenhagen

Best cocktail bars in Copenhagen 2018

Nordic Bartender’s Choice Awards 2018

The 2018 winners of the Bartender’s Choice Awards have just been nominated last night in grand fashion at the annual award show in Stockholm.

As last year we highlight the Danish category winners here:

Best signature cocktail: Walnut Brown

This rye bread infused bourbon cocktail from Gensyn wraps up a perfect balance of sweetness, strength and dry bitterness. If you feel tired of regular Old Fashioneds, this one will take you far enough off the beaten path to keep the excitement going. It will most definitely have you keep coming back to Gensyn. Also nominated in this tasty category was Ama’r Colada and Across the Equator from Duck and Cover, Rapscallion from Ruby and Espresso Martinez from Atze Peng.

Best cocktail bar: Tata

Bars can be noisy and not the best fit for every nightly endeavor. Hotel bars are often more subtle and relaxed with time for good service. This is certainly the case for Tata at Hotel Sanders on Tordenskjoldsgade 15. Here you can enjoy classic drinks served by experienced bartenders in comfortable and intimate vintage surroundings.

Best new bar: Paloma

You find Paloma Vermut Café in the heart of Nørrebro on Guldbergsgade 51. It looks and feels like a street café where you would like to stop by for a coffee and a bun, but Paloma has much more to offer. The cocktails on the menu are magnificent and they have an interesting selection of vermouths and local products. Come summer and this will be your favorite street café cocktail pond.

Best bar atmosphere: Gensyn

Gensyn on Frederiksberg must be the only place in Copenhagen where you can enjoy a well-balanced old fashioned with a couple of friends over a round of five pin billards.Two old lanterns and a green wooden door mark the entrance to this relaxed and non-pretentious bar. No huff and puff – just quality products, impeccable service, good beer and decent affordable drinks.

People’s favorite: Gedulgt

Hidden in a backyard in Aarhus you find this little bar gem. It’s the sister bar of the more classic and renowned Skt. Paul’s Apotek. Gedulgt offers a contemporary take on the cocktail craft. Bold taste experiments and lovely flavor pairings are the result of their cocktail lab and you can expect to have all your senses teased when you visit. Winning the popular vote is well deserved.

Best cocktail menu: Duck and Cover

At Duck and Cover they have been making some of the most interesting and bold cocktail menus in Copenhagen for quite a while! Their menus usually offer a generous mix of variations on classics and contemporary original creations like the Ama’r Colada or Across the Equator. But the guys behind the bar surely know their aquavit – so make sure to get at least one of their own naughty Nordic creations!

Best bartender: Terkel Kleist

Terkel Kleist is one of the Danish cocktail pioneers who many years ago carved out the foundation of the Copenhagen cocktail scene as we know it today. Today he is runnin is own cocktail bar Gensyn on Frederiksberg with his associate David Østergaard Jackson.

Most noticable bar industry improver: Max Scott

Ask anyone in the bar industry in Copenhagen. Everyone knows Max Scott who has been the mastermind and operational muscle behind countless amazing industry events in the city. Currently Max works at Juul’s Vin & Spiritus.

As a few honorary mentions, we would like to hightligt prize winners from the Nordics that we have featured on this site previously:

Best cocktail bar atmosphere in Helsinki: Chihuahua Julep and their Noche De Rabanos that won the best Finish signature cocktail category. And the people’s choice award in Norway went to the Stavanger based cocktail bar Pjolter & Punsj.

Bartenders’ Choice Awards is an annual award that acknowledges excellence within the Nordic drinks industry. It was founded in 2010 and is recognized as the most prestigious awards for the Nordic bar scene. The deciding jury is based on more than two hundred industry professionals and cocktail enthusiasts making the jury the most knowledgeable of its kind.

I believe that true mastery eventually leads to original creation given the right conditions. I love creative cocktails that push the limits of flavor pairing. But I can't deny I have a personal preference for whisky and love everything that is clear and stirred.